Category Archives: Best Practices

How to Start a Recurring Customer Feedback Program

Posted on January 31, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Have you been considering doing some customer research and just not really known how to get started?  I mean you read about doing “customer satisfaction research” and how important it is, but they just leave it there — no one ever tells you how to actually implement a customer feedback program that actually gives YOU the information you need to run your business better, and your customers the opportunity to tell you what will make them happier and more loyal.

When should I start doing research?

There is no magic moment. But if you’re sitting there trying to make a business decision and you find yourself thinking FOR or ON BEHALF of your customer — that’s a good time to actually ASK them what they think.

If you’re in a meeting and your team starts saying what the customer wants — and they aren’t looking at a data set — that would be a trigger to tell you that you need research.

Market or customer research isn’t so much about knowing what your customer thinks as it is to help you make better decisions.  So every time you’re about to make a decision that is rooted in what your customer might like or not like or what action they might take — that’s the time to do some research.

How to get started

Sit down with your team and just start talking.  Come up with some of the key decisions that you’re trying to make and then dig deeper into what’s holding you back.  Chances are, it’s going to have something to do with a lack of information about what will work for your customers.  And since you aren’t asking them and you’re guessing — your project is delayed.

Generate a list of respondents.   This is not a branding survey.  That means that it won’t be blind.  You will tell your respondents EXACTLY what you are doing — You are trying to figure out what’s important to them — what matters to them so that you can improve your product or service.

Generate a list of customers who you know will give you GOOD feedback.  Good feedback means that they will tell you the good and the bad.  Create 3 segments of customers in your list:

  1. Customers you love that love you back
  2. Customers with whom you’ve hit a few bumps in the road – they aren’t satisfied
  3. Customers who are on the fence – and haven’t decided to work with you yet or haven’t decided to buy more from you even though you know they could.

Have conversations with a few customers and explore what matters to them — a.k.a. In-depth-Interviews

I started this headline with In-depth-interviews and instantly remembered that this phrase usually stopped every customer research project in its tracks.  That’s because it rang (cha-chings) in the budgets of managers.

People are afraid of in-depth-interviews because it sounds overwhelming and expensive.  The truth is they are just conversations with customers about what matters to them.  The only difference is that you are following a pre-written set of questions and asking each customer the same question — it’s more organized than a standard chit chat .

Create an online discussion guide.  QuestionPro and SurveyAnalytics have online survey tools, but you can actually use these same online surveys to document your in-depth-interviews.

Create an online discussion guide that can be taken online as well as during a phone interview.  That means make sure that the questions are conversational and create a good experience for the respondent.

Develop a list of questions that you’d like to ask:

  1. Tell me about your relationship with (company name)
  2. What triggered you to contact them?
  3. What was it about (company name) that made them an obvious choice for you?
  4. What alternatives did you consider?

Develop a list of things that might be important to your customer:  This is a fantastic benchmarking opportunity.  Include items in your list that are existing features or services that you offer and also include those items that you might consider offering.  Finally, sneak in a few items that a competitor is offering but that you aren’t to see how they value those things.

This list will drive your action items and projects, so you want to make sure that it’s concrete and easy to understand.  For example you might include “online ordering” as a feature that might be important, but that you currently don’t offer and a competitor does.  If your customers say that this is important to them — you may decide to put an online ordering system in place.

Brainstorm a long list and then choose the top 5-7 most critical items.

Generate a list of other alternatives or competitors. Create a list of other companies that your customers can purchase the same products or services from.

Use the importance/Satisfaction question style.  QuestionPro and SurveyAnalytics have a variety of question styles to choose from but I think that the Importance/Satisfaction style is one of the simplest and yet most powerful.

Insert your 5-7 attributes inside this question type.

When the respondent gets to this question, they will rate HOW IMPORTANT an attribute is to you — and then they will rate how satisfied they are with YOUR performance in that area

Ask them what other companies they purchase from.  After the attribute question, ask them who else they purchase from.  Some will say and other won’t.  You won’t know until you ask.

Repeat those same attributes from the importance/satisfaction question as a matrix.

Use the branching/Looping feature to insert the competitor’s name inside of the attribute matrix.  This will allow the respondent to rate every alternative based on the same attributes.

These ratings will actually create benchmarking data that will allow you to compare your performance against the competition AND against what’s important to your customer.  Your next new product or service can come out of this question — alone!

Give respondents a heads-up.  BEFORE you contact any respondent to do the discussion with you, send them an email or a letter (letters are taken more seriously and don’t get caught in spam) to tell them what you are up to.  Explain that someone will be calling them to schedule an interview.  Ask them to be honest and open and to share freely.  This will greatly increase your response rates and the quality of your responses.

Send an email invitation.  Next, send them an email invitation to the survey.  Inside the invitation, give respondents the opportunity to schedule time with you.  I like to use a link to my Tungle calendar – this way they can pick and choose times that work for them and schedule themselves right into my calendar.

Also offer them the option to complete the discussion online — this also increases your response rates.

Aim for at least 30 telephone completions.  Make sure you TALK TO at least 30 people.  Actually talking to people will give you significantly more insight into what really matters to them.

Then aim for another 30 online completions.

Follow this process and the results will AMAZE you!

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A Primer on the 4 Data Types You Can Collect in Your Market Research

Posted on January 12, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Making a business research questionnaire is no big deal, but making one that successfully derives the information that is actually required by the business to improve its practices is something not every person can do. One of the things that help make an online survey more effective is the understanding of the different types of data that is required out of survey respondents and of the different ways to measure the response. Different situations demand the use of different types of data. Remember, different scales have to be designed to derive these different types of data.

The feedback of survey respondents can be categorized into two basic forms of data – non-parametric and parametric.

Non-Parametric Data

The sort of data that does not have any direction and cannot be divided is called non-parametric data. Usually histograms are used to analyze non-parametric data. There are two basic types of non-parametric data.

Nominal Data

Nominal data refers to alphabetical or numeric data that is used to name people or objects for symbolic purposes and has no mathematical value.

For example, a questionnaire may ask the respondents to name the brand of shampoo they use. Numeric data too can also be included in the category of nominal data such as numbers written on the backs of sportsmen.

Ordinal Data

Ordinal data refers to numeric data that indicates only the relative ranking of different items, without representing the intensity of the mathematical value or the distance between the values. For example, respondents to an online survey may be asked to rank different brands of shampoo.  Hence, the ranking of different shampoo brands will inform researchers the relative preference of survey respondents but will not inform them about the intensity of the difference of preference of one shampoo brand from another.

Parametric Data

Numeric data that has direction is called parametric data. It can be used to analyze the difference the different responses and can also be at times divided. There are two different types of parametric data.

Interval Data

The collection of internal data is done on a scale on which all points are equidistant from the ones next to them. Scales measuring interval data do not have zero because of the nature of thing being measured. For example, respondents can be asked to rate their happiness on a scale of 1 through 10. Interval data cannot be divided because of the non-absolute nature of the data.

Ratio Data

Ratio data is the most absolute form of numeric data collected from respondents. It can be divided and altered in different ways to derive more meaning. All absolute mathematical values can be called ratio data such as income, age, sales, market share, etc.

Although ratio data may seem the most usable form of data and researchers may feel tempted to ask their survey respondents to answer all the questions in ratio form, it is either not practically possible to do so or isn’t the best form of data because of the objective of the research being conducted. An effective online survey questionnaire contains questions that derive the sort of data that will come handy in getting better insight into the respondents’ minds.

The QuestionPro and Survey Analytics online survey platforms allow you to collect all of these forms of data.  The trick is knowing which type to choose to get the best information that you can use in order to make a decision.

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8 Even Better Ways To Designing Online Surveys Without Questioning Yourself

Posted on January 9, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Surveys are very powerful tools that help you figure out how to market and what your market really wants.  You can improve your decisions, by simply following this process:

1.       Establish survey goals:

First off, be very specific on what you are trying to find out. Be sure to write out your goals.

  • What do people think about your web page?
  • Is your target audience business owners?
  • Are they part of small businesses or large companies?
  • Where do they hang out most online?

2.       Decide who your sample audience will be:

Ask the following people to go through your survey:

  • People that visit your home page
  • People that visit your product page
  • People that read your newsletters
  • Get the word out by putting up your ads in Ezine.

3.       Decide which survey method going to use:

There are various choices of survey methods that range from the least expensive to the most expensive ones.

  • Personal Interviews – You can use your online survey tool to conduct phone interviews.  Instead of having the respondent fill out the online survey, you use the online survey as a discussion guide and you write in the answers to the questions.  This is a terrific method to use if you are doing exploratory research or have a longer survey.
  • Standard online surveys – This is the most common survey type.  Remember to keep your questions short and sweet.  Don’t let your audience spend more than 3 minutes answering your survey.
  • Mail – This method is rarely used.  It’s often expensive and doesn’t offer as much control as other methods.  The most common application is to send respondents a postcard with a link to an online survey or to print the link to your online survey on receipts or invoices or other forms of printed marketing materials.
  • Telephone surveys – This method has also become increasingly difficult because of do-not-call lists.  It’s generally expensive but can be effective if you are contacting customers who have opted in to receive information from you or with whom you have a relationship.

4.       Carefully plan out your research:

Once you know the method of survey you’ll be using and who you’re surveying for, you’ll need to:

  • Build a timeline for how long it’ll take from the survey design to the data analysis.
  • Estimate the cost involved.

5.       Design your survey:

Write your survey based on the survey method you’ve decided to use.

DO NOT try to make your survey all things to all people.  Remember, respondents will not want to spend more than a few minutes at a time answering questions.  Instead of breaking up a long survey into sections, consider breaking your sections into individual surveys.

6.       Pre-test analysis:

Carry out a pre-test analysis of your survey before the actual test. Pretesting helps determine if the survey is easy for the audience to understand, whether they’ll be able to successfully fill it out and whether there are any problems that are likely to occur. Remember, you may even need to rewrite the survey.

You can initially decide to pretest your survey to around 15 to 20 people, who you are fairly sure would respond (these could even be friends or family). At the end of the test, you’ll have a number of results what will tell you how your survey will perform with a larger number of audience, as well as the faults in the survey.

7.       Test:

Carry out the actual test once you’re done with the pretest. Collect and organize the data in an ordered format.

8.       Analyze your survey:

If the information you are using is quantifiable, you will be able to analyze it using statistics. However, you may need to dedicate sometime to learn how to use statistics first. And if you are well experienced in the use of statistics, you’ll want to develop a more qualitative survey based on basic reasoning and inferences.

Overall, your goals will shape out the questions to your survey and the answers to those questions will determine how your marketing plan should be, as well as the strategies you should employ.

 

 

 

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4 Measurement Scales Every Researcher Should Remember

Posted on January 4, 2012 by | Leave a comment

One of the standard features offered by QuestionPro’s online survey software is a wide variety of scales that you can use to measure customer response.

At a first glance all the different scales that might seem similar and easily replaceable by each other. However, as you study them in depth, you realize the diversity of their natures and differences in their uses and their findings. There are over 20 different types of scales that are used by researchers in online surveys.  They can be categorized in two classes – comparative scales and non-comparative scales.

There are a number of factors you might consider when deciding on which scales to incorporate in a questionnaire and which ones to use while analyzing data. Some of the factors are:

  • The type of data that is required from the respondent – ratio, interval, ordinal or nominal.
  • How the information will be used once it is acquired.
  • Number of divisions in the scale – odd or even.
  • Types of statistical analysis methods to be used after data is acquired.
  • The physical form of the scale – vertical, linear, horizontal, etc.
  • Details to be provided in the scale as labels.
  • Whether or not response to a question is mandatory.

Since non-comparative scaling techniques are easier and simpler to understand, we’ll introduce to you the most important four scales. You’ll be delighted to see how easy it is to understand and use them. Those who already know about it them are encouraged to comment on the post and let us know any tips that might further help our readers in using these scales.

1.     Graphic Rating Scale

A graphic rating scale, also known as a continuous rating scale usually looks like the figure drawn above. The ends of the continuum are sometimes labeled with opposite values. Respondents are required to make a mark at any point on the scale that they find appropriate. Sometimes, there are numbers along the markings of the line too. At other times, there are no markings at all on the line.

2.     Likert Scale

A Likert scale typically contains an odd number of options, usually 5 to 7. One end is labeled as the most positive end while the other one is labeled as the most positive one with the label of ‘neutral’ in the middle of the scale.

The phrases ‘purely negative’ and ‘mostly negative’ could also have been ‘extremely disagree’ and ‘slightly disagree’.

3.     Semantic Differential Scale (Max Diff)

A semantic scale is a combination of more than one continuum. It usually contains an odd number of radio buttons with labels at opposite ends.   Max Diff scales are often used in trade-off analysis such as conjoint.

MaxDiff analysis can be used in new product features research or or even market segmentation research to get accurate orderings of the most important product features. The SurveyAnalytics platform help’s you discriminate among feature strengths better than derived importance methodologies. Like other trade-off analyses, the analysis derives utilities for each of the most important product features which can be used to derive optimal products, using market segmentation to put respondents into groups with similar preference structures, or to prioritize strategic product goals.

You can have your respondents perform Forced-choice nature of the tasks, where in SurveyAnalytics MaxDiff can disentangle the relative feature importance in cases where average Likert-style ratings might all have very similar ratings.

4.     Side-by-Side Matrix

Another very commonly used scale in questionnaires is the side-by-side matrix.  A common and powerful application of the side-by-side matrix is the importance/satisfaction type of question.

First, ask the respondent how important an attribute is, then ask them how satisfied they are with your performance in this area.  QuestionPro’s logic and loop functions also allow you to run through this question multiple times with other alternatives that the respondent might consider.  This yields benchmark data that will allow you to compare your performance against other competing alternatives.

Here is an example of data from an importance/satisfaction question.  The importance rating is the line and the performance ratings are the bars.  With this type of data, you can actually see where your company needs to increase its efforts to more closely meet the needs of the customer.

While there are many online survey tools and online survey software to choose from, you’ll find that not all of them have these different types of scales available to them.

As you’re designing your survey, be sure to offer a variety of scales.  Using different scales in your survey will engage the respondent more fully and prevent them from clicking the highest, lowest or middle rating all the time.  Another benefit to using different kinds of scales in your survey is that each scale provides you a unique perspective on the data that you are analyzing.

Before designing your survey, review the different types of scales and question types inside of your online survey tool and be sure to pick the one that will best help you make your decision.

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Another Way of Looking at “DIY Research”

Posted on December 7, 2011 by | Leave a comment

There has been quite a lot of conflicting conversation around what DIY Research is and isn’t .  Here is an article written by Dana Stanley over at Research Access that gets into the nitty gritty of the subject.

In my view, the distinction between “DIY research” and “assisted research,” as it were, is no longer as relevant as it once was.

Evolving technology has enabled a sharp increase in the number of options for researchers to “do it themselves” (including technology provided by the sponsor of this blog, Survey Analytics).

Some feel DIY is a scourge, enabling a tsunami of poorly-conceived and poorly-executed research and taking business away from market research consultants.  A few examples of skepticism about DIY research can be found in this blog post by Sean Jordan of the Research & Planning Group, and in this blog post by David Bakken of KJT Group.

Others feel it is a good development, the inevitable hand of progress and customer empowerment.  This post by Steve Quirk and this article on the MRA blog by Kathryn Korostoff are emblematic of the pro-DIY point of view.

I agree with those who feel it’s a positive development.  Enabling customers to make choices is a very good thing; in fact, there can be no other way.  Thanks to the internet and technology, we are in a new age of customer empowerment.  Some form of DIY is an inevitability in nearly every industry.

The reality is that the market is speaking.

In-house corporate researchers, who in many cases have supplier-side experience by the way, increasingly see value in tools that enable them to conduct projects without necessarily needing to hire a research consultant.

Those who misuse DIY research will fail just as do those who misuse assisted research.  Isn’t that just Adam Smith’s invisible hand at work?

There will always be an important role for trained research consultants.  Smart companies know when to bring them in and when they are superfluous.

DIY research doesn’t merit being called its own separate type of research (as the name implies).  Rather, it’s a toolset within market research – a toolset whose commonality is not requiring an outside consultant.

Right now the term is being used to divide the industry rather than unite it.  Survey Analytics CEO Vivek Bhaskaran described the term “DIY research” in another Research Access post as “a term the full service market research industry has coined [that] implies – less than professional.”  This reminds me of how in the States prominent Republican politicians often refer to the opposition party as the “Democrat Party” rather than its actual name, the “Democratic Party” because of the positive connotations with the word “democratic.”

Words matter, so let’s start referring to the former “DIY research” in a more considered way.

Feel free to give your suggestions for terminology in the comments section below.

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Are Traditional Online Research Panels Dead?

Posted on September 28, 2011 by | 1 Comment

I write this feeling like I have one foot in the past/present and another foot squarely in the future.

Let me explain.

I’ve been a part of market research panels for YEARS.  In fact, I have to admit that because of my years of experience of actually calling respondents on the phone as well as sending mail surveys and now online surveys — I always feel obligated to take the time and effort to go through any survey that is offered me.  I suppose you can call it paying it backward rather than forward.

$2 just isn’t enough for 20 or 40 minutes of my time.

The last two panel survey requests I’ve received offered me $2 for between 2o and 40 minutes of my time.  I had prepared myself by taking the survey on a Saturday morning over coffee.  And then about 2 minutes into the survey — I just bailed.  I tried not to — but I just couldn’t keep answering long matrix questions on attributes for a company I had NO experience with.

I also have to admit that this is not the first panel survey I bailed on — I’ve bailed on several over the last month or so primarily because they are too long — even online and even over lunch, I just can’t seem to dedicate 30 minutes to answering stupid questions.  And the questions have terrible logic – I can absolutely understand asking me questions about a product, service or company that I used.  But if I’m not a user and have no experience – it doesn’t work to ask me 50 questions about the detailed attributes on the subject.  It’s fine and fair to ask me say 5 or 10 questions — but anything more than that is just too frustrating.  As a respondent I hate having to repeat “I don’t KNOW” and then not have an option for N/A.

Does the panel you paid for REALLY represent your target audience?

Anyone can sign up for a panel.  Anyone can be any demographic in a panel.  In the survey I bailed on, they were offering $2 for 20 minutes.  After going through the first 15 questions, I could see that their target audience wasn’t going to spend the time required to give them the quality answers they wanted.

So are they getting the good data that they need from their target audience?  I don’t think so.  In fact, I think they are paying $5 per respondent for garbage.

Yet I have to think that there is value in these old fashioned online panel studies.  I’d love to hear from the online panel research folks and have them explain the logic here.

Mobile market research panels are better, cheaper, funner

Over the last several months, I’ve been playing in the mobile market research panel sandbox and I have to say the experience is EXPONENTIALLY more engaging, valid and valuable to the company doing the research.

  • Real people.  When you use a mobile smartphone to answer a survey, your demographics are locked in.  We know who you are.
  • Location focus.  Your smartphone also has GPS feature that shows where you are.  This makes geographic targeting much easier,.
  • Super short surveys.  Only one to 5 questions per survey means you are in and out in an average of 30 seconds.
  • More fun.  The mobile survey panel questions occur as much more fun and engaging.  I’m not sure if it’s how they are worded or the fact that the surveys are short.  I can only say that people like taking them.  You can take a survey in the grocery line, waiting at the doctor’s office or during a boring meeting.  Either way, you feel part of a community and it doesn’t take up much of your time.
I don’t think online research panels are dead by any stretch of the imagination.  I think that we will see the use of panels increase.  But I certainly hope that the long surveys are done and over with because at this stage of the game, I’m not sure that any customer worth having will have the time or attention span to complete a survey that takes any more than a couple of minutes.

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To force or not to force

Posted on September 1, 2011 by | Leave a comment

We’ve added in an option on MicroPanel to force users (panel members) to update (and fill out) their profile before they can start taking surveys. We’ve internally struggled with this – while on one hand, a deeply profile panel is very useful, on the other hand we are generally not big fans of forcing users to do something. We’ll – who are we to decide. We just gave everyone the option of going one way or the other. By _default_ panel profile update is not “required” – but then we added in an option in the Profile Setttings to require as needed:

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Posted in Best Practices, Feature Enhancements, Survey Analytics, Uncategorized

How to Control Your Customer Satisfaction Scores

Posted on July 7, 2011 by | Leave a comment

We tend to measure customer satisfaction after the customer experience has already happened.  But that isn’t when the opinion about the experience is really created.

Customer experiences are actually created long before your customer ever reaches your doorstep.  They often start with impressions and perceptions created when your potential customer interacts with friends and colleagues who may tell them about your company, or they search online and find articles and reviews about your business.

This is the moment when expectations are created based on what messages are currently active about your business and the customer experience.  While you can’t control others — you can control and design a customer experience.

  1. Profile Your Customer.  I know I say this all the time, but if you want to control a customer experience, the first thing you must do is be clear on what kind of customer you’d like to attract and then create a customer experience targeted toward them.  Here’s an example.  If you have a hair salon business and you decide to target people who are on a busy schedule.  You might design an experience that guarantees that your customer will start their appointment on time and end their appointment on time — every time.  If you were targeting people who wanted to go to a salon for a spa experience and who looked at that experience as entertainment, rather than a task — those people would feel rushed, hurried and unappreciated.  So first decide on WHO your customer is and what’s important and then start designing a customer experience around that.
  2. Map out your experience process.  The best experiences are really staged, orchestrated and managed.  Customers appreciate the thought put into it and are willing to pay a higher price and give great reviews to the companies that deliver .  To design a great process, you’ll need to map out exactly what your process looks like TODAY.  This way you can manage and measure the effectiveness of the changes you’re making.  At each stage of the process, outline exactly what your desired action or outcome is and then work backwards to make sure that it’s achieved.  For example, if your customer is a busy person who wants to receive service within 5 minutes of walking in, you may decide to have them schedule an appointment in advance so that their slot is guaranteed.
  3. Create opportunities for feedback.  Don’t wait to ask for feedback!  Survey Analytics’ SurveySwipe application has some terrific features that can push surveys out to your customers based on when they enter your store.  Or, you can post QR codes at different stations around your location and give customers the opportunity to give you a “thumbs up” or a “thumbs down” at that specific station.  It not only increases customer engagement, it allows you to control that experience in real time and make improvements immediately before a bad impression is created.  Here’s some more information on the SurveySwipe Instant Feedback Product
  4. Change it up for the better.  If you’re receiving input and feedback, make those changes and publicize them.  If a customer made a request for something that turned into an improvement to your system – let everyone know.  If it’s appropriate for your business, acknowledge them there or why not send them a letter or note about the change you made with a special free gift to come back and experience their idea in action.

With today’s interactive technology, there is no reason to wait for customer satisfaction feedback — get the feedback as soon as possible so that you can control the quality of that experience.  This will not only improve your customer satisfaction ratings, but will improve profitability, loyalty and customer engagement.

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How Social Media and Mobile Devices Have Changed the Way We Segment

Posted on July 5, 2011 by | Leave a comment

About six years ago I saw a demographer speak at a conference for natural food retailers and producers.   He was trying to explain how traditional demographics did very little to explain actual buying and spending behavior.

Instead, he posited the idea that people participate in “worlds” or interest areas — one of which might include “natural or organic food” or “cycling” or “hiking” for that matter.

He wasn’t saying that interest areas weren’t around before, he was saying that there were better ways of grouping people on the horizon.  Well, the horizon he was talking about is here and in full swing.

A recent Mashable article proclaimed the “End of Demographics” and extolled the virtues of psychographics.  This isn’t new to researchers, but what is new is the myriad ways that we can now collect this very powerful information.

Mobile Profiles and Panels –   You can buy a panel or you can create and build your own.  If you can build a community via Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter, you can build your own panel and start profiling them.  If you already have a rather large community, then you can use companies like GraphEffect to mine that data.  There are free options as well for data mining.  Survey Analytics recommends DiscoverText as a tool to analyze social media chatter.

Behavioral Information:   It’s no secret that past behavior predicts future behavior.  That’s why gathering behavioral based data as soon as close to the actual behavior is such a powerful predictor.  Use a mobile survey platform like SurveySwipe to see your audience in action.  With it’s location-based features, you can push a survey out to your audience when they enter a specific location.  And your audience doesn’t have to worry about privacy because our unique technology keeps it all under wraps.  Another great behavior based feature that the SurveySwipe mobile platform has is the ability for your audience to take and send pictures!  You wouldn’t think the response rate would be high, but it is!  Respondents love to take pictures and share how they are interacting with products.

Customer Life Style and Life Cycle Information – Demographic information might tell you if someone has children, but not how many and their ages.  Even more, it won’t update this information over time.  Social Media psychographic analysis can give you this kind of information that runs deeper than just age or assumptions about age.

Why Psychographic Information is So Powerful

Psychographic information that’s gleaned from social media channels or mobile devices is valuable because it speaks more directly to behaviors that are relevant both to the person and to the researcher.

For example, people who purchase high-end cycling equipment can span all levels of the income, education and location spectrum.  But what holds them together is their love of cycling or the fact that they cycle at least ten miles per day.  It’s their behavior that will ultimately drive their purchasing.

If you’re still gathering psychographic information the old fashioned way, take the time to take a fresh look at exactly what type of information is available and what where this information is.  It is available to you at a lower cost and effort than you’d imagine.

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Posted in Best Practices

Follow These 5 Tips to Turn Your Blog Into a Customer Magnet

Posted on March 30, 2011 by | Leave a comment

It’s one thing to keep saying that you should have a blog, but having a blog that actually attracts customers and builds loyalty means that you have to provide great content.

Here are some tips for providing great blog content:

  1. Make a list of the 5 -7 top reader frustrations. In the same way that our eye is drawn to the crooked picture in an otherwise perfect room, we tend to focus on frustrations and peeves that drive us crazy.  Whenever someone mirrors those frustrations, we feel a sense of camaraderie.  Use these frustrations and your solutions as the anchor and mission of your blog.  You want each article to be a salve against the painful frustrations that your readers are experiencing.  Literally make this list and keep it handy use it as a rotating theme for your content.
  2. Identify keywords and phrases from that frustration list.  Recent studies have shown that people aren’t exactly looking for solutions first.  BEFORE they look for a solution, the search out their problem — looking for ideas and options on what the solution is.  For example, “Leaking Roof” is a problem that I will search on hoping to see what options are available to fix it.  Is this a quick fix or do I need a roof replacement.  Or I might search on a term such as “sales process” because I feel like I have no control over my sales process or I’m not getting consistent results.  So all these terms are hot button issues that you can write about.  Your audience is searching for guidance on how to buy.  They are more likely to buy from the company that helps them understand and choose.
  3. Answer customer questions. The easy way to do this is to have a board or Google Document  that people can contribute customer questions to so that you can create content that answers them and gives advice.   Take a helpful and educational tone in your writing and be open about where the question came from and then simply answer it.  Keeping tabs on customer questions will also give you ideas on additional kinds of content such as video.
  4. Recruit contributing experts for each “frustration” your customers have.  Blogging can becaome a daunting task — but not of you recruit experts in your company or in your industry to be contributing experts.  Ask if sales, customer service, technical or engineering folks would be interested in writing out answers to customer questions or writing about events they’ve attended.  Also think about writing about events that you’re attending such as trade shows and what you’ll be featuring there.  Another win-win strategy is to recruit the experts in your industry to write for your blog.  Trust me – they would be honored and happy to do it.  It’s a HUGE promotional and marketing opportunity for them and a big help for you and information for your customers.
  5. CEO or president is a regular contributor.  I’ve separated the CEO writing for the blog as a separate tip because it is so very important.  You don’t have to be a journalist or the next Tom Clancy to communicate what you’re up to as a company.  CEOs miss a HUGE PR opportunity in NOT writing for their blog.  You’d be amazed at the CEOs who blog.  I mean if the CEO from GM can find the time to blog — so can YOU.

Referrals are still the number one way of getting the best, most profitable customers.  And don’t think that just because you’re in a more B2B or industrial market that referrals don’t work — I’m working on a heavily industrial project right now where the most popular way that people choose suppliers is by calling other suppliers and customers and asking who they would recommend.

Your blog is a tremendous promotional and advertising tool – don’t let it go to waste.

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